UP police take down 6031 loudspeakers from religious shrines, tune 30,000 for volume

Over 6,000 loudspeakers were removed from religious places and the volume of another 30,000 was set to permissible limits across Uttar Pradesh following a government order, a senior police official said on Wednesday.

A statewide drive is being undertaken to remove loudspeakers from religious places and set their volume within permissible limits, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said.

”Under this exercise, a total of 6,031 loudspeakers were removed and volume of 29,674 loudspeakers was set within permissible limits till Wednesday afternoon,” he said.

The action came after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, during a review meeting on law and order with senior officials in Lucknow last week, said people have the freedom to perform their religious practices according to their faith.

"Though microphones can be used, it should be ensured that the sound does not come out of any premises. People should not face any problem,” he had said.

The home department has also sought a compliance report from the districts over the removal of loudspeakers at religious places by April 30.

As per the information provided by the police department on Wednesday, the maximum of 1,366 loudspeakers were removed in districts of the Varanasi zone, followed by Meerut (1,215), Bareilly (1,070) and Kanpur (1,056).

In terms of minimising the volume of loudspeakers, the Lucknow zone tops the list with action against 6,400 loudspeakers, followed by Bareilly (6,257) and Meerut (5,976).

Kumar said loudspeakers are being removed from all religious places without any discrimination.

The exercise was conducted by a joint team comprising officials of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation.

"The exercise to remove loudspeakers was started on Tuesday and is currently underway. We are conducting the exercise in tandem with members of peace committees and religious heads of different religions. So far, we have not faced any opposition while conducting the drive," Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Somen Barma said.